Google likes to experiment with artificial intelligence. We’ve had live DJ tools, podcast creators and a way to create custom lettering. Now its engineers have turned their sights to the world of chess with GenChess, a new experiment that lets you design custom pieces using the Imagen model.
GenChess is built on top of the Imagen 3 artificial intelligence image generation model from Google DeepMind. This also powers the ImageFX experiment and image creation in the Gemini chatbot. It is a very impressive model that can create everything from photorealism to design.
You can create either a classical chess set that adheres more to the original shapes, or a creative one that is a little more experimental in design. After you create your own the AI will come up with a suitable competitor set and you can play a timed game.
How does GenChess work?
GenChess uses AI to personalize the 1,500-year-old game by giving you a simple way to create custom sets. You can then play against the computer.
It uses the Imagen 3 AI image generation model and some clever prompting techniques to customize the set. The initial prompt is fairly restrictive. Google provides the bulk of the prompt but you can switch between classic and creative, and add a descriptor at the end.
My favorite part is that it also tries to create a matching opponent. When I gave it Mars as a prompt, it generated an opponent set that reflected Venus. When I gave it dogs on the beach, it gave me cats on a catwalk as the opponent.
As both a millennial and someone in the chess club at school, I couldn't resist creating a set made to look like avocado toast. Google gave me bacon and eggs as an opponent. I lost the game.
